//------------------------------// // Trophy Hunters // Story: Unnoticed Threats // by smirker //------------------------------// Doctor Whooves was walking around Ponyville and he saw Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Applejack at the park with their pets, they watched them playing, he walked past them while waiting for his next patient, he looked at Fluttershy's sanctuary and saw the animals getting along just fine, he kept walking while waiting for his new patient, he knew that he was not like a normal pony. Doctor Whooves arrived back at his home and heard a deep male voice grunting, he looked and saw the stallion, "Great whickering stallions!" Doctor Whooves exclaimed as he reeled up onto his hind legs, the stallion was a muscular earth pony, he had a dark yellow coat, orange eyes that were bloodshot, long straight black mane and tail that were greasy, and he was wearing a mask on his face made from the skin of several animals sewn together with sinew dyed black that covered everything except his eyes, snout, and mouth, and was wearing black jeans that were torn at his hind hoofs, his cutie mark could not be seen, "Are you the patient?" Doctor Whooves asked, the stallion nodded, "Come with me then." Doctor Whooves said, and they entered his home, the stallion walked on his hind legs like a bipedal creature. The patient stood across from Doctor Whooves, who sat in his chair, "State your name and occupation." Doctor Whooves said, the stallion looked for something and went outside, he came back with hoofful of dirt, "Hey, careful with that." Doctor Whooves remarked, and the stallion put it on his desk, he began making symbols in the dirt with his hoof, "Great whickering stallions! This is a dead language." Doctor Whooves stated, the stallion looked at him, "It's alright, I can understand it." Doctor Whooves remarked, and the stallion made more symbols, "Your name is Feral, and your job is survivalist?" Doctor Whooves asked, the stallion nodded, "Go on, I can read what you're writing." Doctor Whooves stated, and he wiped the dirt around and then made more symbols in it, "You can understand our language but can't speak it." Doctor Whooves read, Feral nodded, "How did you learn?" Doctor Whooves questioned, Feral made more symbols in the dirt, "Your parents taught you before they passed away, they were historians who taught you how to write this language." Doctor Whooves read, Feral nodded while smiling and grunting, "Well, let's get started." Doctor Whooves said, and Feral began writing and drawing his experiences in the dirt. Feral lived in a jungle filled with wildlife in western Equestria, he has lived there ever since he was three years old, his parents passed away from getting attacked by an animal that terrorized the jungle, they were killed before they could teach him how to speak, he found their reports and learned how to write the ancient language while pony travelers taught him the pony language and gave him what he needed to survive. Feral walked through the jungle and made weapons with wood and rocks, he ate meat and drank water for his breakfast, he finished and went to go see how the other animals were doing, they ran to him and he petted them as they licked him, he let them go and the animals ran back to their families. He got his spears and his bow and arrows, his bowstring was made from natural fiber, and the arrows were made from bones and rocks, he walked around and looked for his lunch, he saw a stag eating grass, he shot it in its head and it fell, he went to the stag and put his head down and closed his eyes to apologize for killing him, he picked him up and carried him back home. Feral cooked and ate the deer for his lunch and burped when he finished, he walked around on his hind legs and heard snickering, "We're going to get a lot of money from this beaut." a male voice said, "Yup, we can use its teeth to make jewelry, too." a second male voice responded, they snickered while Feral looked and saw two stallions with a fox on the ground and tied up, they were about to put it in their wagon. Feral jumped up a tree and jumped to a cliff next, he jumped down in front of the two poachers while growling, the two screamed at seeing his mask, they took their wagon and ran away while Feral threw spears at their wagon. He bit the restraints off of the fox and it got up and ran away, he walked around and went back to patrolling the jungle. He walked around and saw everything was peaceful at the moment, he picked some plants to eat while he walked around. Feral stopped walking for a minute when he saw a family of tigers around, he walked over to them and saw they were around a dead tiger that was bigger than all of them, it had arrows and spears in it, its head was missing as well. Feral jumped into a tree and landed on a branch, he looked around to see anything suspicious, he saw a blood trail and footprints on the ground, he jumped down and followed it. Feral jumped from the tree and onto the ground, he checked the footprint and saw it had four paws and a pretty big heel, he ran again and jumped onto the next tree when it was in his sight, he crawled on the longest branch and looked forward, he saw more footprints and drips of blood on the ground, he jumped down again and followed the trail. He kept following the footprints and soon smelled the blood, he followed the scent and began walking forward slowly, he walked on his hind legs while using his front legs to balance himself, he walked forward to see what killed the tiger. Feral walked slowly and saw four bipedal cougar-like creatures, they all had reddish-brown fur that covered their entire bodies, they had spears, bow and arrows, knives, and hatchets, they all spoke in an unknown language and had deep male voices, they turned around and Feral saw leather straps across their chests with a metal plate on the center of them that had a cougar skull carved on them, they were also wearing necklaces with severed heads on them, he saw various animals and pony heads on the necklaces. "Wait, did you say they had reddish-brown fur and feline features?" Doctor Whooves asked, Feral nodded, "Werecougars, they're a tribe that like to hunt dangerous animals and people for sport, they consider those who give them hard hunts and fights to be worthy opponents." Doctor Whooves explained, Feral wrote something in the dirt and he looked, it asked if they had a leader, "Yes, they are led by a tribe chief, usually male, he becomes the chief by proving himself to be the strongest of his tribe, that doesn't just mean killing an animal more dangerous than what the rest of his tribe hunts, he also has to fight the other werecougars for the title." Doctor Whooves explained, Feral wiped the dirt around again and made another sentence, he asked if there were anymore creatures like them that hunted others, "Yes, three more tribes just like them, werewolves, werecoyotes, and werebears." Doctor Whooves replied, Feral wiped the dirt around and made another sentence, it asked why were they in the jungle and where they were from, "My best guess is those four you encountered are there to test their own skills or seek out a worthy challenge, you said they had deep voices, so they're not teenagers that are there to hunt down and kill a strong animal as a rite of passage to show the adults they are ready to hunt with them, as for where they're from, I'm not sure, they have tribes all over Equestria." Doctor Whooves said, Feral nodded and continued writing in the dirt. Feral watched the werecougars and they smelled the air, they began running on all fours and he followed them. He arrived back in the jungle and saw the four watching a tiger. The werecougars stalked it and one shot an arrow into the back of its head, the tiger roared as it died. Feral watched the four and the one who killed it cut the tiger's head off with a hatchet, he then undid his necklace and used one end to stab through the tiger's head on the side, it came out on the other side and he slid the head onto the necklace and put it back on, the four werecougars went elsewhere. Feral walked to the dead tiger and mourned it, he finished and went back to tracking the four foreign creatures. He tracked them by their paw prints and he saw them again, they ears' flicked each time he took a step, Feral realized they heard him and he got on the ground and crawled slowly. He crawled to them slowly and they still heard him, they quickly turned around and shot arrows at him, he quickly got up and jumped back, he ran away while the werecougars chased him. Feral ran back to where he stayed last night as quickly as he could and got his weapons while the werecougars chased him and shot arrows at him, he faced them and shot an arrow from his bow at them, one werecougar caught it and shot it with his bow. Feral ducked while the arrow hit a tree, he saw the four werecougars throwing their spears at him, he threw one of his spears and one caught it and threw it back at him, he turned his body to his right and dodged it. He ran and jumped on the trees and tackled one werecougar down, but he threw Feral over himself and got back up. Feral got back up while the werecougar took out a knife and tried to stab him, he held him back with his front hoofs, he struggled while sweating while the werecougar continued to try to stab him. Feral wrestled with the werecougar while the other three watched, he growled while the werecougar remained silent, he pushed him back while cutting the werecougar's right cheek with his own knife. He stumbled a little but remained standing, he felt his own cheek and looked at the blood, he smiled and chuckled, Feral tried to punch him but he grabbed his hoof and began squeezing it, he lifted Feral up in the air and he tried kicking him with his hind hoofs, the werecougar threw him back, Feral got up and ran away while the four werecougars smiled and chased him. Feral ran away while he heard the werecougars behind himself, he ran faster and went into the jungle, he began jumping from tree branch to tree branch, he heard the werecougars jump and they jumped from tree branch to tree branch as well, he jumped higher into the tree in an attempt to lose them, he heard them still coming, Feral continued jumping in the leaves and tried to lose the werecougars, he went as far as he could and jumped out of the trees and began running. Feral went ran through the jungle and reached into a tree to take a sword out that he found buried in the ground many years ago that was with a pony skeleton, he ran around more and got rope made from animal hairs and furs and other trash that he collected from pony travelers. Feral kept running and came across two trees, he quickly tied rope between the two to set up a tripwire, he dug a hole in front of the rope and put his knives in it, he covered it with leaves and grass. He ran a bit and heard the werecougars catching up, he saw them running and the one in the front tripped over the rope and fell into the hole, the other three stopped and looked at him, they paid their respects to their ally and took his weapons, they began hunting down Feral again. Feral ran through the jungle and set up another trap, he tied more rope and put it through a tree branch with a log tied on it, the rope was held in place on the ground by being tied to a stick stabbed into the ground, he ran forward and hid behind a rock while he heard the werecougars coming, he saw the three remaining ones arrive and one kicked the stick out of the ground. The log on the rope began to fall but the werecougar grabbed it and stopped it mid-motion, Feral's eyes widened while the werecougar threw the log and rope behind himself, he and the other two began sniffing and they look at where Feral was hiding, they ran and Feral began running away, the three werecougars shot arrows at him and he laid on his stomach to dodge them, he got back up and ran more. One werecougar took a spear off of his back and aimed it at Feral. He looked back and saw two werecougars were chasing him while the third one was in the back and aiming a spear at him, he threw the spear and he ducked to dodge it, the spear landed on the ground. He ran more and the werecougars jumped into the trees and he heard them jumping past him. The third werecougar was chasing him and catching up to him quickly, he tackled Feral down and he grunted. Feral tried to get up but the werecougar wrapped his tail around his neck and began to strangle him, he gagged and tried to breathe while the werecougar wrapped his tail around his neck even tighter, he lifted his hind left leg up and kicked the werecougar in his chin. He grunted as he fell over and his tail unwrapped itself, Feral took it off and ran away, the werecougar got up and rubbed his own chin, he and the other two continued chasing him. Feral ran through the jungle and saw an open area with very little trees, he also saw a panther with its cubs walking by, they stopped and looked at him. Feral bowed to them to say hello and they rubbed their heads on him, he then used his hoofs to tell them to leave, they heard the tree branches move, they looked back and saw the three werecougars, one aimed his bow at the adult panther and shot an arrow at it. Feral took out his sword and cut the arrow while it was in midair, he took a spear off of his back while the panthers ran away, the same werecougar aimed at the adult panther again and Feral threw his spear at him and hit him in his heart. He looked at the panthers running away and then focused on the two remaining werecougars while holding his sword, the two shot arrows at him and he cut them with his sword, one threw a spear and Feral cut it with his sword while the other shot another arrow at him while he was distracted, he moved his own face back quickly and just barely dodged the arrow, it put a cut on his mask on the left cheek. He ran away while the two continued throwing spears and shooting arrows at him, he knew what was up ahead and took his supplies off, he came across a waterfall and threw his gear as far as he could, they landed on the ground in front of it, he then jumped down into the water as the werecougars came. Feral swam up to the surface and gasped for air, he got out of the water and picked up his gear, he went deeper into the jungle and looked around his surroundings, he made more traps, he tied rose vines around two trees, dug a hole and put his spear and sharpened sticks in it and covered it with leaves, a tripwire rope set to send a tree log falling down, and a bunch of knives between two trees, he thought about the risk of making a fire to dry himself since the werecougars will see the smoke, but he decided to make it. Feral got some dirt and peeled some tree branches off of trees, he rubbed them on himself to mask his own scent, he heard the water splash and noticed the two remaining werecougars have arrived. He ran to go hide in the bushes while carrying his bow and a few arrows. The two werecougars arrived at the fire and saw the traps around it, they set them off and then began taking the weapons in the traps for themselves. Feral sneaked through the bushes and saw one werecougar taking the spears and sharpened sticks out of the ground while the other one cut the rose vines with his hatchet, he aimed his bow slowly and shot an arrow, the werecougar taking the spears and sharpened sticks out of the ground heard it but was soon hit in the back of his head and fell. The last werecougar shot arrows from his bow at where Feral was at, he got on his own stomach and dodged them, he crawled away slowly. Feral kept crawling in the bushes and went slowly to reduce rustling sounds, he peeked up and saw the werecougar taking the other one's weapons for himself, he bowed to him while making a strange gesture, he had his hands together and claws intertwined with his index claws pointing upwards, he finished bowing and went back to exploring the area. Feral crawled away and noticed he was low on weapons and supplies, he went uphill and saw the last werecougar, he got ready to shoot an arrow at him, but he heard the bowstring get pulled and quickly turned around and threw a knife a Feral, he ducked and it hit a tree, he grabbed it and took it and ran away while the werecougar chased him. Feral ran and he was looking for a place to set more traps, but the werecougar caught up to him and tackled him down, he grabbed all of his gear and threw them away, the werecougar then threw his own gear away, he scratched his own right chest right under his own collarbone, he then wiped his own blood on his face, Feral did not recognize the symbol. "Wait, can you point to the symbol he painted on his face?" Doctor Whooves asked, Feral did, "I see, in their language, that symbol means he considers you a worthy opponent, and he is honored to have met you." Doctor Whooves explained, Feral raised an eyebrow, "I know it's confusing to you, but werecougars love a challenge, they consider anybody who gives them a hard hunt to be worthy of their respect." Doctor Whooves explained, Feral groaned, "Well, go ahead and continue." Doctor Whooves remarked, and he did. Feral stood and just looked at the werecougar, he lifted his arms up and told Feral to come forth with his hands, he did, the werecougar then did another gesture that told Feral to lift his front hoofs up, he did. The werecougar punched him in his face and he fell over, he did a gesture that told Feral to get up, he lunged towards him and punched him in his face, the werecougar stumbled while Feral stood back up. He focused and saw the werecougar about to punch him again, he ducked and punched him in his abdomen, the werecougar growled as he stumbled a little, Feral then punched him in his chin and he stumbled back, Feral was about to punch him in his face but the werecougar did a quick punch and hit him on his snout, he grunted loudly as he fell onto the ground. He quickly stood up and the werecougar was about to punch him again, he ducked and punched him in his chest, the werecougar did not react, he grabbed Feral's head and began to squeeze it as he lifted him off of the ground, he kicked the werecougar in his chest with his hind legs and he stumbled back as he let go of him. Feral remembered his own hunting experiences and decided to try a few things, the werecougar came forward again and was about to punch him again, Feral shifted all of his weight into his next punch and hit the werecougar in the side of his neck, he became disoriented and Feral did more hard punches to the werecougar's head, he fell over while Feral panted, the werecougar looked at him and smiled and chuckled, Feral raised his hind right leg and stomped it down onto his neck and broke it. Feral got his gear back and undid his traps, he took the werecougars' weapons and climbed back up the cliff, he went back and forth and got the four werecougars, he cut them with their hatchets, cooked them, and ate them, he kept their bones to be used for carving. The few days went on peacefully until a pony came looking for him, "Feral?" the pony asked, he looked at him while reeled up on his hind legs, he saw it was a colt who looked a little scared, unbeknownst to him, the colt was Walker, "Can you understand me?" Walker questioned, Feral nodded, he gave him a paper, "This is written in a language I don't understand, but a stallion in Ponyville named Doctor Whooves said to give this to you." Walker said, Feral took it and he left. Feral looked at it and saw it was a note that instructed him to come to Ponyville and talk about the werecougars, Doctor Whooves' address was on it, he folded it and put the paper in his mask and headed there. Doctor Whooves was sitting across from Feral and he wiped away the dirt and wrote another sentence in it, it asked how did Doctor Whooves find him, "I have many devices that show me what goes on around the world, since the werecougars are not native to the jungle you live in, I was a bit worried you would start having nightmares about your experiences with them." Doctor Whooves explained, Feral shook his head, "You're fine right now?" Doctor Whooves asked, Feral nodded, "Good, I also called you here because there is a being named Claudius threatening all of Equestria, he is undetectable by magic, we can use your strength and resourcefulness against him." Doctor Whooves stated, Feral thought about it and nodded, "Thank you, this way." Doctor Whooves said, and he used a device to open a portal and the two went in it and it closed. Doctor Whooves and Feral arrived into a cave and Feral saw many people there, he told Feral their names, they were Jones, Inertia, Solute, Data, Modules, Kinetic, Solubility, Solvent, Graph, Storage, Daylight Dimmer, Starburn, Joker, Darwin, Cassius, Walker, Runner, Sprinter, Raging Tornado, Earthquake, Tsunami, Meteorite Hellfire, Tao, Gunslinger, Archer, Kinkaku, Ginkaku, Mother Nature, Spirit, and Demonicus, "Good, you're here, we need your help, Feral, Claudius threatens us all, we need all the help we can get to take him down." Demonicus said, Feral nodded, "We'll cover it for you, this is Claudius and his cult." Doctor Whooves explained as he showed him pictures and explained everything to him, "Alright, everything's covered, let's get back on with our days." Spirit stated, and they all left. Doctor Whooves and Feral arrived back into the office, "Be careful traveling from now on, Feral, all werecougars will now see you as a worthy opponent and will hunt you down to test their own skills." Doctor Whooves warned, Feral nodded and left. Feral headed outside and saw everypony looking at him with shock, he walked like a bipedal creature and headed back to the jungle, he heard rustling in the trees and saw more werecougars stalking him, he shrugged and walked back to the jungle.